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Advance Internet
What's wrong with Advance Internet's picture? |
We all know the Internet is changing fast -- audience growth, improving demographics, more "purchase intent" by users, right?
So why would a Web site use research numbers that are more than two years old as a sales tool? Especially when that site is Advance Internet, home of Nola.com. (See my recent post on this.) The audience metrics research Advance currently touts for Nola.com is from May and June 2005 -- before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, which changed just about everything in New Orleans.
These numbers -- "39 percent of NOLA.com's consumers will use the Internet in the future for information on job listings or to post resumes," "25 percent ...for information on cars, trucks, or vans," and "28 percent ...for information on buying a home or a condo" -- are not only horrendously outdated, they're also stunningly misleading in light of the changes in the New Orleans market.
And by the way, NOLA.com clearly has access to more current research -- so why isn't the newer data used instead of the other numbers?
These numbers: "With 868,000 unique visitors* each month and 50 million page views** each month," are from May 2006 and from 2005, respectively.
C'mon. How serious are we about selling if we use data that's almost three years old? At a newspaper, that's bad enough. But at a Web site, that's mere foolishness. And if buyers pay attention, it's certainly causing more harm than good.
